LETTERS: Willits' hypocritical 'enviro-evangelists'

With more than 30 years of living in Willits, I have had considerable opportunity to make observations of individuals, groups, the town as a whole, and the surrounding area.

Local environmentalists have always been very vocally self-satisfied as to how everyone else should think and act. I can't tell you how many times I have had to run the gauntlet past "enviro-envangelists" telling me they "know how I am going to vote on this or that issue," that they "assume I am with them on this or that cause". They are right, anyone with some other viewpoint is wrong.

I remember a few months ago, getting into a discussion with someone at an anti-bypass table who, when I asked how long he had lived in Willits, he said "I don't live here."

One of my observations about the environmentalists in Willits is how hypocritical they are--so willing to blast the bypass for the environmental damage it will cause, but so silent on the environmental damage caused by the marijuana agri-business in this lovely place, Mendocino County. Fertilizers, soil amendments, miticides, rodenticides. fungicides, plant hormones, diesel fuel, human waste, timber clearcuts, graded mountain tops, drained streams, algae growth, polluted watersheds; wildlife poisoned, species threatened with extinction, or their comeback further endangered.

Where is the outrage among the Willits area environmentalists when it comes to this environmental damage? They are mum. A recent anti-bypass sign on the local environmental center said "goodbye sacred oaks," but I guess sacred oaks are dispensable when it comes to their sacred herb. I can't think of a time when the message on the Willits environmental center said anything about the huge carbon footprint caused by the marijuana industry.

Due to their sanctimonious hypocrisy, Willits environmentalists long ago ceased to have anything of import to say to me. When the environmentalists of Willits start having sit-ins on top of the piles of black plastic irrigation tubing trucked in and out of here every day, or block the trucks carrying tons of pesticides and rodenticides to marijuana grow sites, or when they set up tables informing the public about the rapacious environmental damage caused by the marijuana industry, I might listen to something else they have to say about the environment.

But in the meantime, it is just more hot air or, should I say, blowing smoke.